Homework
'Zilla challenged me to answer five questions for her, so here they are with answers:
1) Ariel, sometimes you mention the desire for work pertaining to your hard-won degree. Tell us all about your dream job -- what exactly would you be doing, where would you be doing it, what would you most like and most dislike about it?
My dream job would be research. I see a lot of things wrong with the world and since I'm not much of a mover and a shaker, reading about them and telling others is the best route to changing them for me. I would love to delve into the whys of human behavior, the reasoning behind some of America's cultural drives, and then write about them in a way that would show other people just how backward we really are. I would work from home, and do some travelling to investigate deeper into some areas, interview people on the street, or in their offices. Honestly, I've already done this job, and I loved it. While I was working at Healthy start I was doing these things, except I wasn't being paid for it, and I only had three months to do it in. But I did good work, enjoyed it, and wrote a great research paper about the merits of Early
Childhood Education and Care and Parental Leave benefits. I would most like working on my own schedule and being able to change my work environment regularly. If Mina needs me I can leave my work for later, if I get tired of sitting at the computer I can go do some interviews. I like the variety and self-management aspect. I would not like to try to hunt down the funding for my research. People who have jobs like this don't just fund themselves and then get the royalties when they are published. They have to write grants for funding for their projects and that in itself takes up a lot of time.
Time in which your bills still have to get paid. Time that I just don't have.
2) At some point in your life, you must have had an "ah-ha" moment, a time of life-changing realization. What was that ah-ha moment, and how would things be different for you if you had chosen to ignore it?
Uhhh, how many ah-ha moments do I get to list here?
Ah-ha's:
1) Twelfth grade, sometime near graduation. I don't really think I want to be a veterinarian, despite the fact that it's been my dream since I was like five!
2) One year later. Shit, I'm gonna be a mom. I'm homeless, jobless, broke, and my boyfriend's a jackass. So now what?
3) June this year. I'm lonely, celibate, still a mom, have a worthless degree, and have to move into the job world after spending almost my entire life in school. I'm not gonna go down this way dammit! I'm just too stubborn to give up.
3) An almost all-powerful and slightly psychotic wizard approaches you. He tells you that for the rest of your life your only sustenance will come from one food item. This item will provide you with complete, balanced nutrition, no matter what it is, as long as you eat enough of it to meet your daily calorie requirements. If you eat anything other than this food item, you will be covered with hairy warts and your teeth will all fall out. You have no choice but to select the one food item. What will it be and why?
Who says I'm not already covered with hairy warts and my teeth haven't already all fallen out?
Okay, so that's not true. but I like variety. I would choose bread. As far as variety goes there are many options within the realm of bread products. Although I suppose that I would miss cheese and meat. But some bread has cheese, and/or meat baked right into it. Is
cheese bread allowable, or does it even have to be the same kind of bread all the time? If that's the case you might as well just cover me with warts and yank out my teeth right now, cuz it ain't gonna happen. I need CHEESE and BREAD.
4) According to my therapist (whom I fired), it is an almost universal goal of parents to do better by their children than their parents did by them. Even though you have perfect parents, what is one thing you'll do differently as a parent, and what is one thing you'll do the same (and of course, why, and why)?
heehee, perfect parents?! I sure hope you're kidding.
What I will do the same is easy, I'll treat my kids like adults, not talk to them like they're stupid, but let them know that their opinions and thoughts are as equally valid as my own. And then I'll go ahead and do what I want anyway.
Why? Because nobody likes to be talked to like they're stupid.
What I'd do differently is a bit more difficult.
I would like to do some things differently but I may not be able to because of the whole single-parent thing. I would like to be able to spend more quality time with my kids than my mom did, she left for school before we did when I ws a kid and we came home to an empty house after school. I don't want Mina to be a latchkey kid like I was.
I also want to be able to get her involved in extracurricular stuff, but that involves time and money both of which my mom never had enough of and at the rate things are going I probably won't either.Since my parents were divorced through most of my life and I grew up with each of them separately I should mention that I would raise my kids with an understanding of mind over matter the way my dad did with me. And I wouldn't preach to them my ludicrous conspiracy theories like he does.
Why? Because he's freakin nuts!
5) You sometimes mention your interest and participation in SCA events. Tell us all about SCA: how did you first become involved, what was the primary appeal, and, after your first event, what was it that made you want to do it again?
My first experience of the SCA was in a book, my favorite book. One of the characters was a member and learned swordplay during his time in the SCA. I always wondered after that how to get involved in it, but kinda looked at it as something that people somewhere do that I will probably never be able to hunt down. I never expected them to come to me, especially in Eugene. Then a few weeks before I graduated from high school my dad came home with this scruffy looking guy who he'd met at his lawyer's office. The guy was going through a nasty divorce and needed a place to stay for a while, he was a blacksmith and the fifth best swordmaker in the world. His name was Steelwolf. It turned out that he was in the SCA
and went to nearby events regularly. He told me about Egils (a local event that is usually a great party) but it was the same day as my graduation so I didn't go. A few weeks later, having graduated and having nothing to do with myself I was wandering around downtown and met a group of mallrats who were also in the SCA, one of them (jamie) offered to help make me some garb (clothes) and get me out to An Tir/West War. So I finally got to go to my first event.
Steelwolf drove us out there and I had the best time ever! The primary appeal was the fact that an event is some people's only escape from their boring stressful lives. Because of that they really let their hair down, it's a hedonist's dream come true. There is nothing that has to be done, you can sit on a chair in your camp all day, or you can wander around meeting
people, or you can roleplay, or fight in tournaments, or go shopping in merchant's row. And once it gets dark the alcohol comes out, every drink you can imagine is available, brewer's bring their own homemade beer, wine, and mead. And most of the time everyone is willing to share what they have. an hour after dark everyone is piss drunk, laughing, singing,
and stumbling around in the dark. There are belly dancers, bards, musicians, drummers, actors, storytellers, basically it's like a campground festival.
and last but not least, if you can't get laid in the SCA you can't get laid at all! This is something I've never had a problem with. There is a certain amount of chivalric feeling, and i've had many bed warmers who were perfect gentlemen, but if you want to there is a high likelihood of getting laid.
So why did I keep going back? Isn't it obvious? I also developed many friendships with people from out of town and eventing was one way to get to see them now and then, Mags was one of those friends, and Jamie ended up moving away too but I still see her at events now and then (not that we really get along any more). I keep going back for the sense of community, I'm known there, I'm welcomed there, and I get to wear a really low-cut bodice! :)
My challenge: Use two (or more) of the following words in a haiku:
soliloquy, cleft, feeble, bean, disbosom
Thought I'd make it a bit harder. Good luck. I'll send five questions of my own to whoever sends me a haiku.
1) Ariel, sometimes you mention the desire for work pertaining to your hard-won degree. Tell us all about your dream job -- what exactly would you be doing, where would you be doing it, what would you most like and most dislike about it?
My dream job would be research. I see a lot of things wrong with the world and since I'm not much of a mover and a shaker, reading about them and telling others is the best route to changing them for me. I would love to delve into the whys of human behavior, the reasoning behind some of America's cultural drives, and then write about them in a way that would show other people just how backward we really are. I would work from home, and do some travelling to investigate deeper into some areas, interview people on the street, or in their offices. Honestly, I've already done this job, and I loved it. While I was working at Healthy start I was doing these things, except I wasn't being paid for it, and I only had three months to do it in. But I did good work, enjoyed it, and wrote a great research paper about the merits of Early
Childhood Education and Care and Parental Leave benefits. I would most like working on my own schedule and being able to change my work environment regularly. If Mina needs me I can leave my work for later, if I get tired of sitting at the computer I can go do some interviews. I like the variety and self-management aspect. I would not like to try to hunt down the funding for my research. People who have jobs like this don't just fund themselves and then get the royalties when they are published. They have to write grants for funding for their projects and that in itself takes up a lot of time.
Time in which your bills still have to get paid. Time that I just don't have.
2) At some point in your life, you must have had an "ah-ha" moment, a time of life-changing realization. What was that ah-ha moment, and how would things be different for you if you had chosen to ignore it?
Uhhh, how many ah-ha moments do I get to list here?
Ah-ha's:
1) Twelfth grade, sometime near graduation. I don't really think I want to be a veterinarian, despite the fact that it's been my dream since I was like five!
2) One year later. Shit, I'm gonna be a mom. I'm homeless, jobless, broke, and my boyfriend's a jackass. So now what?
3) June this year. I'm lonely, celibate, still a mom, have a worthless degree, and have to move into the job world after spending almost my entire life in school. I'm not gonna go down this way dammit! I'm just too stubborn to give up.
3) An almost all-powerful and slightly psychotic wizard approaches you. He tells you that for the rest of your life your only sustenance will come from one food item. This item will provide you with complete, balanced nutrition, no matter what it is, as long as you eat enough of it to meet your daily calorie requirements. If you eat anything other than this food item, you will be covered with hairy warts and your teeth will all fall out. You have no choice but to select the one food item. What will it be and why?
Who says I'm not already covered with hairy warts and my teeth haven't already all fallen out?
Okay, so that's not true. but I like variety. I would choose bread. As far as variety goes there are many options within the realm of bread products. Although I suppose that I would miss cheese and meat. But some bread has cheese, and/or meat baked right into it. Is
cheese bread allowable, or does it even have to be the same kind of bread all the time? If that's the case you might as well just cover me with warts and yank out my teeth right now, cuz it ain't gonna happen. I need CHEESE and BREAD.
4) According to my therapist (whom I fired), it is an almost universal goal of parents to do better by their children than their parents did by them. Even though you have perfect parents, what is one thing you'll do differently as a parent, and what is one thing you'll do the same (and of course, why, and why)?
heehee, perfect parents?! I sure hope you're kidding.
What I will do the same is easy, I'll treat my kids like adults, not talk to them like they're stupid, but let them know that their opinions and thoughts are as equally valid as my own. And then I'll go ahead and do what I want anyway.
Why? Because nobody likes to be talked to like they're stupid.
What I'd do differently is a bit more difficult.
I would like to do some things differently but I may not be able to because of the whole single-parent thing. I would like to be able to spend more quality time with my kids than my mom did, she left for school before we did when I ws a kid and we came home to an empty house after school. I don't want Mina to be a latchkey kid like I was.
I also want to be able to get her involved in extracurricular stuff, but that involves time and money both of which my mom never had enough of and at the rate things are going I probably won't either.Since my parents were divorced through most of my life and I grew up with each of them separately I should mention that I would raise my kids with an understanding of mind over matter the way my dad did with me. And I wouldn't preach to them my ludicrous conspiracy theories like he does.
Why? Because he's freakin nuts!
5) You sometimes mention your interest and participation in SCA events. Tell us all about SCA: how did you first become involved, what was the primary appeal, and, after your first event, what was it that made you want to do it again?
My first experience of the SCA was in a book, my favorite book. One of the characters was a member and learned swordplay during his time in the SCA. I always wondered after that how to get involved in it, but kinda looked at it as something that people somewhere do that I will probably never be able to hunt down. I never expected them to come to me, especially in Eugene. Then a few weeks before I graduated from high school my dad came home with this scruffy looking guy who he'd met at his lawyer's office. The guy was going through a nasty divorce and needed a place to stay for a while, he was a blacksmith and the fifth best swordmaker in the world. His name was Steelwolf. It turned out that he was in the SCA
and went to nearby events regularly. He told me about Egils (a local event that is usually a great party) but it was the same day as my graduation so I didn't go. A few weeks later, having graduated and having nothing to do with myself I was wandering around downtown and met a group of mallrats who were also in the SCA, one of them (jamie) offered to help make me some garb (clothes) and get me out to An Tir/West War. So I finally got to go to my first event.
Steelwolf drove us out there and I had the best time ever! The primary appeal was the fact that an event is some people's only escape from their boring stressful lives. Because of that they really let their hair down, it's a hedonist's dream come true. There is nothing that has to be done, you can sit on a chair in your camp all day, or you can wander around meeting
people, or you can roleplay, or fight in tournaments, or go shopping in merchant's row. And once it gets dark the alcohol comes out, every drink you can imagine is available, brewer's bring their own homemade beer, wine, and mead. And most of the time everyone is willing to share what they have. an hour after dark everyone is piss drunk, laughing, singing,
and stumbling around in the dark. There are belly dancers, bards, musicians, drummers, actors, storytellers, basically it's like a campground festival.
and last but not least, if you can't get laid in the SCA you can't get laid at all! This is something I've never had a problem with. There is a certain amount of chivalric feeling, and i've had many bed warmers who were perfect gentlemen, but if you want to there is a high likelihood of getting laid.
So why did I keep going back? Isn't it obvious? I also developed many friendships with people from out of town and eventing was one way to get to see them now and then, Mags was one of those friends, and Jamie ended up moving away too but I still see her at events now and then (not that we really get along any more). I keep going back for the sense of community, I'm known there, I'm welcomed there, and I get to wear a really low-cut bodice! :)
My challenge: Use two (or more) of the following words in a haiku:
soliloquy, cleft, feeble, bean, disbosom
Thought I'd make it a bit harder. Good luck. I'll send five questions of my own to whoever sends me a haiku.
posted by AnywhereEden | 8:33 AM
14 Comments:
Harder? It’s easier for me not to rhyme.
A feeble bean is in
My cleft, can you please find it
And present a soliloquy, dear?
What is this disbosom, anyhow? How do I not know a word with bosom in it?? *grin*
Even Dictionary.com doesn't know what the hell Disbosom is.
You made it up, didn't you??
Malachi?
Is that the character? SEE, I DID read it. And remembered it, mostly.
I have pictures of three people in that bodice!
Do you see how many comments I make!!!
Huh!
Actually, I've just been commenting as I go down the post.
Almost at the end.
Also, I AM DRINKING CAFFEINATED WATER!
Could there be anything better than that? No calories and as much caffeine as one cup of coffee.
It doesn't taste like those nasty mints either. It just tastes like water. =)
I think it's going straight to my head. I'm still not posting though, so I have to get it out somehow. I will, instead, deluge you with comments. =)
Shit, it's only syllables.
I messed up. I thought 5,7, and 5 words, not syllables.
I feel like an ass.
What about
A feeble bean is
in my cleft. Please find it and
say I love you my dear.
Did it have to make sense?
Ok, I must be brain dead. I mean
A feeble bean is
in my cleft. Please find it and
say I love you dear.
For some reason, every time I counted that last line, I kept thinking, dammit, I need one more word.
My brain is now defunct. I sure hope I don't get lost taking the bus home.
I still like the original better.
But I will stop commenting now.
Talk to you soon.
disbosom:to make known; reveal; confess.
And I didn't make it up, it's in my American College Dictionary from like 1910.
yes it was Malachi.
You need to lay off the caffeinated water.
I loved your poem, and your haiku(s).
I will make you five questions sometime this weekend, if I can drag myself away from Mags long enough. ;)
I have to work tomorrow too, I might take you up on babysitting though. I'll give you a call once i figure out what's going on.
See, it's not like gym class at all, you did win, you got picked first.
You should have seen the lousy poem I wrote 'Zilla to get my five questions.
I did see, and as for lousy, I don't know what you are talking about.
Overachiever, with your using all FIVE words. ;P
A soliloquy
My cleft is full of beans
Feeble disbosom.
Ok, I like this one better, can we start over from here? *grin*
Sorry, this shit keeps going around in my head. I am like....how could I have made that better?
Do you see what you have done to me?
=)
Here's to overachieving, girlies. Des, you've got a real knack for this. Ariel, your poem was NOT crap, so get off your own back. Plus, your five answers rocked.
Now, you don't owe me five questions, especially since you are off frolicking with mags, but I can't resist two things in life: a haiku writing challenge, and showing off. So here is my silly haiku, using all of the words, and, look out, it actually makes a punny sort of sense (but only if you're stoned).
one, and other bean
disbosom: a feeble cleft
sad soliloquy
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